Just for Fun: Haiku Error Messages

These error messages are zipping across the Internet at light speed. They are supposedly anonymous, but it turns out they are the result of a Salon Magazine contest. Read "The case of the hijacked haiku," for the rest of the story.

What if instead of cryptic, geeky text strings, your computer produced error messages in haiku . . .

Yesterday it worked
Today it is not working
Windows is like that

A file that big?
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

The Web site you seek
cannot be located but
endless others exist

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

ABORTED effort:
Close all that you have.
You ask way too much.

First snow, then silence.
This thousand dollar screen dies
so beautifully.

With searching comes loss
and the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.

The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao, until
You bring fresh toner.

Stay the patient course
Of little worth is your ire
The network is down

A crash reduces
your expensive computer
to a simple stone.

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

You step in the stream,
but the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.

Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.

Rather than a beep
Or a rude error message,
These words: File not found.

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.n